A Fairly Odd Post-Apocalyptia
by SaltyJak
Summary: Timmy and Vicky grew up in the Vault, where everything was good. Nice, safe, and boring. Nobody ever left the Vault, they had no reason to, until Timmy. He wanted adventure; to see the surface, and Vicky's along for the ride. ON HIATUS.
1. Chapter 1

_America was gone, most of the world went with it. Lost to the nature of Man, who, despite their great ability to build and create, eventually gave in to a more base instinct: the need to destroy. The Great War may have only lasted a few hours, but the devastation was consummate, few things remained after the dust cleared, most cities were merely broken husks, the forests were burned from the Earth, the oceans were caustic and radioactive, most who remained on the surface either died, or were mutated beyond recognition. Those who were able to took refuge in great underground fallout shelters, called 'Vaults', the exact number of vaults isn't known, and is likely lost to the ravages of time, but here we focus on one in particular..._

_Vault 113..._

_One of several 'control' vaults, as the Vault-Tec corporation referred to them, there was no experiment, not really, the vault was built like any other, maximum capacity of one thousand occupants, enough spare parts to keep everything running for centuries, should the need arise, and two GECK devices, the Garden of Eden Creation Kits. While the vault _should _have opened after receiving the all-clear signal, Vault-Tec didn't count on the Overseer being ridiculously overprotective of his family and friends, so the vault door never opened, the overseer felt that the vault and its inhabitants could sustain themselves indefinitely, and would never have to return to the surface, an idea he passed on to all his descendants, who just _happened _to inherit his position. This continued for two hundred years, until one person decided that he wanted some adventure, sure, living underground was safe, no radiation, no mutants, no raiders trying to kill you for a bottle of dirty water, but was it really living? This person, this boy, didn't think so, and he had a plan to escape the confines of the vault and see the world as it was now. But, we are getting ahead of ourselves, first it would be wise to turn back the clock a few years..._

2266, June 27...

"Timmy!"

Timmy ignored his mother, he was too busy trying to make sense of what he had just read in the book before him. 'You're Special!' was the title.

"Timmy, we're going to have some guests over, friends of your father, he's the overseer and keeps all of us safe!"

"Mom... I wanna read my book!"

"You've already read it, it doesn't do any good to read it over. Now come on! Let's go!"

Timmy reluctantly stood and followed his mother, she wore a blue and yellow jumpsuit, and so did he, and his father... and everyone else in the place they lived, he had never really thought about it until reading that book... "Mom? Why do we wear these suits?"

"Everyone who lives in the vault wears them."

"But why?"

"We just do. Standard issue attire down here, and the dispensers always put out more if they ever get ruined."

"Hm... How did we end up down here?"

"You sure are asking a lot of questions..."

"The book showed a 'ten' next to a word... intelli... intelligence! That was the word!"

"Oh I see! My little man is following in his father's footsteps!"

Timmy scratched his head at this comment. _"Dad's intelligence is ten? Doesn't seem like it..."_

"Anyway... according to what your great-great grandfather's journal says, our family, along with several other families, moved into the vault just before the war started. Your great-great grandfather was appointed overseer and kept us safe from the horrors of the outside world, and the position has been passed down from generation to generation, you will be overseer one day, just like your father."

"What if I don't want to?"

"Oh, you will. It's a position everyone respects and admires."

"I wanna go on adventures though! Slay dragons, rescue princesses, get in fights!"

"There are no dragons or princesses in the vault, we are safe here, and we always will be. Now come along, you're becoming an introvert, like your father, and that just won't do."

Timmy followed his mother into his living room. "Hello Mrs. Turner!" A jubilant black haired woman came over and hugged Timmy's mother, followed by a red headed man with some stubble.

"Why don't you call my mother by her name?"

"Oh don't mind him, he's just excited to meet a new friend, he's been asking me questions all day... this is my son, Timothy."

"Timmy."

"Oh... he's adorable! And that pink hat, really compliments him."

"I know! That's why I got it for him! Not because my husband and I were hoping for a girl, certainly not that!"

"Well Timmy, I'd like you to meet my daughter, Victoria."

A girl with red hair stepped out from behind the black haired woman, she wore the same jumpsuit as everyone else, and a purple bow in her hair. "Mom... call me Vicky..."

"Vicky just finished her 'Special' book, the thing said her intelligence was ten! Ten! Can you believe that?"

"Seems the newest generation is growing up to be geniuses... Timmy's said the same."

"What are the odds? Where's your husband by the way?"

"Oh, we're going to meet him, I just wanted to make sure the kids got along before we did! Bye Timmy, Bye Vicky! We'll be back later tonight!" the two children watched their parents leave, then looked over each other.

Timmy noticed that the girl before him was about an inch taller than him. "Um... how old are you?"

"Four. You?"

"Turned four in March..."

"I turned four in January, guess that makes me older than you."

"I guess..."

"And I'm taller too. I think I'll call you... Twerp!" she flicked his forehead for emphasis.

"Ow... My name is Timmy!"

"And I'm gonna call you Twerp!"

"Why do you have to be so mean?!"

"Why do you have to be so short?!"

"I have a name for you! Icky Vicky! I think it suits you well!"

"You take that back you... Twerp!"

"Nope, not unless you apologize first, Icky Vicky!"

"Not happening Twerp!" Vicky grabbed a red bouncy ball and threw it at Timmy.

"Hey! You can't..." he grabbed the ball and tossed it back. "Not unless I have something to throw too!"

"Then grab something!" she was amassing a small pile of blocks behind the now knocked over coffee table.

Timmy leaped behind the couch and began throwing forgotten toys out from behind it. "I was... hoping we... could be... friends!"

"Isn't this... what friends... do?!" she threw more blocks toward him.

"You have a weird way of showing we're friends!"

"What would you prefer... we kiss?!"

"Wha-?!" Timmy was stunned long enough for Vicky to whip a block at his forehead, the impact knocked him out of sight.

"You done now Twerp?!" no answer. "Twerp?" Vicky came out from behind the coffee table and looked around. "Timmy?"

Vicky heard a loud skittering sound from one of the vents and moved closer to investigate it. Upon reaching it, she looked at it more closely and jumped back as the vent burst open, revealing a cockroach the size of a large rat. "What are you?"

The roach fluttered its wings several times and then began skittering towards Vicky terrifyingly quickly. "Yuck." Vicky kicked the roach as hard as she could, sending it sprawling across the floor. After several seconds of lying on its back, the roach righted itself and charged for her again.

Vicky quickly backed away as the roach closed in. "No, get away!" Vicky kicked the roach again, but it only slowed down and hissed, then began running towards her again. Just as the roach was about to reach her, a foot came down on its head, snapping it off with a disgusting crunch.

Vicky looked up to see Timmy, he had a bloody mark on his forehead and looked like he had been crying. "You... um... you okay?"

Vicky looked at him in disbelief, he had saved her, despite the fact that she had hit him hard enough to draw blood and called him names. She leaped at him and wrapped her arms around him. "You saved me!"

"Wha- I... I guess so..."

A greenish yellow liquid oozed from where the roach's head had been, the roach's body began to move and crawl toward the two children, though far slower than it had earlier. Timmy and Vicky both saw this and walked around it toward the coffee table. It followed their movements and headed towards them.

The two children waited until it was close enough, then flipped the table back over, onto the roach, then jumped on top of the table, eliciting a much more impressive and disgusting crunch from it.

Vicky got off the table and looked at the ooze seeping out from under it. "Is it dead?"

"I think so..." Timmy went to the kitchen and grabbed a paper towel to wipe off his forehead. "Whaddya say we watch old movies until our parents come back?"

"Um... yeah." Vicky moved a small shelving unit in front of the vent. "Just in case there are more..."

"How does it look?" Timmy had applied a bandage to his forehead.

"Like I threw a block at your head..." Vicky looked down at her feet.

Timmy jumped onto the couch. "Or like I tripped running away from the bug." he smiled and patted the space next to him.

Vicky joined him on the couch. "Or that." Vicky moved a bit closer to Timmy. "Thanks again for... saving me."

"You're welcome."

_A few hours later..._

Timmy and Vicky's parents returned to find their children sleeping peacefully on the couch, leaning against each other. "Oh... isn't that sweet? They must have tired themselves out from playing..."

"Yes, it looks like Timmy finally has a friend..."

"And my Vicky too, she always tries to be bossy around new people and ends up pushing them away..."

"This looks like the start of a great friendship and WHAT THE HELL IS LEAKING OUT FROM UNDER MY COFFEE TABLE?!"

The outburst from Timmy's mother caused both children to wake up. "Oh... Hey mom..."

_Four years later... _2270, August 12...

"I still don't understand! Why can't we leave the vault?"

"Because the world out there is a nightmare made real! Your father doesn't let anyone leave the vault, not even to go scouting, don't you understand? It's too dangerous! Up there, there's nothing left but ash and sand, we made the vaults so we could survive and one day build anew, but that day won't ever come, the world is too far gone! Now stop this right now or I'll tell Vicky's parents she can't come over!"

"Fine..." Timmy's mother left his room. He was beginning to dislike her for that, she was using Vicky to get to him, to have power over him... It wasn't fair. Your own parents using your friends to control you...

"Hi Mrs. Turner! How are you?"

Vicky had begun using a sickeningly sweet voice after she turned eight, it was mostly to persuade adults to give her what she wanted, and to convince them that she was a 'good' girl, like the ones in the old movies who stayed home all day and cooked dinner for lazy husbands. In reality, she was a tomboy through and through, Timmy found it funny that she was such a good actor at eight, and occasionally joked about a place he read about in a history book, the old world writers called it 'Hollywood', she'd just brush him off, saying something about how it no longer existed.

"I'm good Vicky, just tired... Timmy is in his room."

"Okay thanks, don't work too hard!" Vicky entered his room. "Hey Twerp! How's it going?"

Timmy hadn't used his nickname for her since the day the 'radroach' got in, he only called her Icky because it rhymed with her name, she wasn't icky... the radroach was, but not Vicky. "I'm fine... just had an argument with my mom."

"Oh? What about?"

"I want to see the surface, I wanna see what it's like up there... everything is so boring down here, the same gray walls, the same buzzing lights, the same..." He shuddered. "Tight, blue and yellow jumpsuits..."

"Your father makes the rules... can't you ask him?"

"I tried, he usually tells me I'm thinking too much and to not worry about it, and that's if he's here, most of the time my mom and I don't see him for days at a time because of 'official overseer duties'... Hey... I wanna make a promise, just between us."

"Okay..."

"Let's promise to get out of here one day, to see the world for ourselves, together. Whaddya say?"

Vicky thought to herself. _"Well... it's not like it'll ever happen, no one has ever left the vault... It's a nice dream to have, but..." _"I promise, one day, we'll get out of the vault, and we'll see everything for ourselves!"

"It's a promise!"

"Yeah! A promise!"

The two linked their fingers together and pinky swore.

_Two years later... _2272, January 13...

It was Vicky's birthday today, a birthday wasn't usually a big thing in the vault, most people only invited their close family and friends, Vicky's mother and father had invited slightly more people, likely hoping to get Vicky to meet more kids her own age.

Timmy was uncomfortable around all the new people, but he managed, he wanted to be here with his friend, normally a birthday isn't all that important, but today Vicky would be turning ten, the age a person receives their Pip-boy 3000, another relic from the old world. It was a wrist mounted computer that had all the information one could need about their current state, sicknesses, broken bones, radiation poisoning, what you were carrying, your aptitude for various skills, they even advertised being able to connect to the internet, though, with a lack of internet due to a certain global apocalypse, that feature went untested.

"Timmy! You made it!" Vicky ran over and hugged him.

"Of course! You think I'd miss my best friend's birthday?"

"I know you wouldn't... All these people... I don't know any of them..."

"I know what you mean, it makes me a little uncomfortable... Oh! Before I forget, here." Timmy held a crudely wrapped gift in his hand.

Vicky gasped. "Ooh! What did you get me?!"

"One way to find out..."

Vicky snatched the gift out of Timmy's hands and began tearing away the wrapping paper, revealing a small wooden box. "Where did you get this?"

"I have my ways... people don't always notice when things go missing, and nobody would suspect the overseer's kid."

"Oh... a bad boy, eh?"

"Just open the box."

Vicky flipped open the box to reveal the inside was felt lined, but it was what was inside that caught her attention. A rough-cut chunk of rosy quartz the size of a quarter, though not flat like one, hung on a slightly tarnished silver chain.

"My dad's friend who works in the lower levels got it from the caves down there, I think I have enough pink." he touched his hat. "So I want you to have it, it um... reminded me of your eyes..." Timmy blushed pink.

"Aw... thanks!" Vicky wrapped her arms around him again. "I'm glad we're friends!"

"Uh... me- me too!"

"Let's go have some cake, huh?"

"Lead the way... but don't let the robot cut it this time!" Timmy gestured to a ball shaped robot with three optical lenses on stalks, a booster jet to allow it to hover, and three arms, one a claw like device for holding things, one a nozzle that it used as a flame thrower, and one a saw blade.

"I'll let my mother do it, what do you have against Mr. Handy?"

"How about the fact that if there were ever a malfunction, he's perfectly capable of ripping everyone in here to shreds, then burning the evidence? Call me paranoid..."

"You're paranoid." Vicky took his hand and led him over to the dinner table.

_A few months later... _2272, March 21...

"Happy Birthday Timmy!"

Timmy sat up in bed. "Wha?"

His mother stood in the doorway to his room. "It's your birthday today!"

"Oh... right." Timmy yawned. "Who's coming?"

"Why everyone of course! Today's the day you finally get your Pip-boy and become an adult!"

"I'm ten."

"Yep! An adult!"

"Yeah... could we maybe not invite so many people over? I didn't like all the people that were at Vicky's party..."

Timmy's mother looked downcast when he mentioned Vicky's name.

"Mom? What's wrong?"

"Honey..." Timmy's mother came and sat on Timmy's bed. "You remember how Vicky hasn't been feeling well the past few days?"

"Yeah... she seemed kinda pale, and she mentioned she felt nauseous... Is... is she okay?"

"No... she isn't. The doctors don't know what's wrong with her, and she's getting worse..."

Timmy got out of bed and quickly got dressed. "I want to see her."

"But Timmy... she-"

"Now! Either you bring me to see her, or I go by myself, but I want to see her."

Timmy and his mother arrived at the vault's medical area.

"I'm here to see my friend, Vicky."

"Oh! You're... um yes right away sir!"

Timmy noticed that people around the vault began treating him differently lately, with more respect, but it almost seemed like there was an underlying sense of fear. _"Because my dad is the overseer maybe?"_

The nurse led him down the hall to a room that was far off from the others. "She's right through here... I'm sorry about your friend..."

"_Sorry? They're treating her like she's already gone... What is going on here?" _Timmy entered the room to find Vicky lying in bed, she looked even more pale than before, and her fingers were bony, she seemed to have lost a fair amount of weight. She was surrounded on all sides by glass walls. "Vicky?"

Vicky turned her head to look at Timmy. Her face looked gaunt, she was clearly very sick, but what could cause this? "Hey Twerp, you came to visit?"

"How are you feeling? They have you in quarantine..." Timmy walked over to the sliding door and went in.

"Timmy! You can't-!"

"I don't care!"

"But... what if you get sick?!"

"Then at least I'll be able to share some of her burden..."

"Oh... Timmy..." he watched his mother leave the room, wiping her eyes.

"You shouldn't have come in here..."

"You're my friend, I can't let you go through this alone... Now, how are you feeling?"

"How do I look?"

"Um... not great, pretty bad actually."

"Yeah, that sums up how I feel too... Hey... isn't it your birthday today?"

"Yeah..."

"Go and enjoy yourself... you shouldn't be bothered with me on your special day..."

"I can't celebrate my birthday with my best friend sick in the hospital..." he noticed she still wore the necklace he gave her.

Vicky followed his eyes. "Oh this? It's my lucky charm, maybe it's all that's keeping me around..."

"You don't think..."

"I overheard the doctors talking with your father... if they can't figure out what's wrong with me... they mentioned they'd have to 'euthanize' me... that I might be a danger to the vault..."

"What?!"

"Timmy... it's okay... I don't want to be the reason the vault fails..." Vicky looked down and Timmy noticed tears falling onto her blanket. "Oh god... gimme a sec..." Vicky leaned over the bed and threw up into a basin next to the bed. "Ugh... sorry about that..."

"It smells... sweet?"

"Sweet?" Vicky leaned over the bed and lightly inhaled. "I guess it does... kinda..." Vicky looked nauseous again and laid her head down. "I don't think I'll be around much longer..."

"Don't talk like that! I'll... I'll think of something, I'll talk to my father, but you have to hang on!"

Vicky turned over in her bed so she faced the wall. "I'll do my best..."

Timmy left the room a dashed back to the entrance of the medical area to find his mother and father waiting for him. "Timmy! I'm very disappointed in you! We have rules about quarantine for a reason!"

"I don't care about your rules! I care about my friend! And you want to kill her!"

The people in the waiting room all looked to their overseer with shock on their faces.

"I don't want to kill her! It's for the good of the vault! If she's contagious... it could mean the end of all of us! Whatever she has... the doctors can't treat it, and they don't know what it is... I'm sorry son, but..."

"Well... give me some time then, please! I want to help her..."

"You can help her... let her go..."

"No! I won't!" Timmy ran past his parents and back to his living quarters.

* * *

><p>AN: So... here's this... Whatever it is, should I continue it, I will likely have it diverge from the dream sequence in Summer of Discontent, since it's already heading in a different direction. Before I commit to it any more though, I wanted to get my readers' opinions on it. So leave a review or PM if it isn't too much trouble...


	2. Chapter 2

"Timmy?" Timmy's mother had returned later that day to find him at his computer, looking through files of the old world and its diseases.

"What is it now? Does dad still want me to give up and let Vicky die?"

She had never heard her son sound so cold before. "No... he wanted me to give you this..." she held in her hand his Pip-boy and an old book.

"What's the book?" he asked as he locked the Pip-boy on his wrist. It looked old... far older than any of the books in the vault.

"It's a book that details all of the diseases from before the war... Your father had it in his collection and thought..."

He took the book and opened it, causing a puff of dust to shoot out. "Tell him I said thanks..." he put it on his desk and began looking through it.

"Good luck honey..."

"Thanks mom..."

Timmy's mother left his room and closed the door. Timmy's father sat in the living room, drinking from a bottle of whiskey. "He still mad at me?"

"Of course he is... you wanted to kill his best friend..."

"I didn't want to..."

"I know... for the good of the vault..." she sat down next to him. "She's his only real friend, can you blame him?"

"I suppose not... but all that book will do is give him false hope..."

"Better than no hope at all..."

"I'm not so sure about that..."

_Vicky's hospital room..._

_Vicky stood in a verdant field, there was green all around her and the sky was blue, an orb of light was above her, casting a warm glow on everything around her._

"_Is that... the sun?"_

_A short distance away, she saw children playing, some she knew, and some she didn't, her parents waved to her a short distance away, she waved back._

"_Is this... the outside world? It's beautiful! No gray walls, no buzzing lights... Is this what we've been missing?"_

_She turned back around and saw a city a few miles away, it was like a shining jewel, gleaming buildings that shot skyward, a park filled with flowers and plants, and cars zipping back and forth around the city. She was seeing the old world before devastation rocked it, before it was reduced to ash. She looked to her left to find Timmy standing next to her, still wearing his pink hat and jumpsuit._

"_We made a promise, that we'd see it together."_

"_I don't know if I'll be able to keep that promise..."_

"_We can't stay here forever... the vault... it isn't a place for us. Y'know?"_

"_The world doesn't look like this anymore Timmy, even having never seen it, we both know that- Ow!" Vicky looked down to see a bee on her arm, it had stung her right in her vein. "I don't think I'd miss these though..." she swatted it away and pulled out the stinger._

_Back in the real world..._

A nurse was drawing blood from Vicky's arm. "Sir... we've already done all the tests... I don't see how-"

"Stop calling me 'sir'! I'm Timmy! And just please do the test..." Timmy took out the book his mother had given him and showed it to the nurse. "Test for-"

Vicky's arm brushed at the needle in her arm.

"Just test her blood again, follow what the book says..."

"...Very well sir- Timmy..."

_Back in Vicky's dream..._

"_You have to keep our promise... I won't give up on you, so don't give up on yourself."_

"_Like it's that easy... Nobody knows what's wrong with me..."_

"_I'll figure it out."_

"_You've been a good friend... I'll miss you..."_

_Timmy vanished before her eyes, along with the other children and people. The sky turned form blue to a sickly reddish-orange color. "Timmy?!"_

_Vicky was aware of a low whistling sound that quickly grew in intensity. It sounded like it was coming from the city. She looked to the city, then above it to see a large black bird flying over, though it's wings didn't move at all. A black shape was rapidly falling toward the city, Vicky surmised that the bird must have dropped it._

"_What is-?"_

_Vicky was answered by a blinding flash of light, and the sound of a thousand thunderclaps. At first, she thought she had been stricken blind and deaf, but realized she had just squeezed her eyes shut and put her hands over her ears. But then she opened her eyes to reveal a wall of fire racing toward her, her last thought was the awareness of a sharp pain in the upper back part of her left arm._

Vicky awoke in a cold sweat, still in her hospital bed. "What the? Ugh... my head... where am I?"

"Still in the medical clinic..." Timmy was doing his best to rest comfortably in the chair he was in. "How are you feeling?"

"Sweaty... what time is it?" Vicky checked her Pip-boy. "Just after one AM... What happened?"

"You want the good news, or the bad news?"

"I need some good news today..."

"The good news is, I figured out what was wrong with you. You aren't gonna die... well, not anytime soon."

"And the bad news?"

"Well... You _are_ sick, and there isn't a cure, at least, as far as I know."

"What is it?"

"A disease from the old world. Apparently nobody in the vault has had it at all. That's why the doctors didn't know what it was, nobody has had to treat it in over two hundred years..."

"So what is it?"

"You have all the symptoms of... Diabetes Mellitus, Type One. It's a genetic thing, apparently brought on by the onset of puberty, at least that's when people usually get it."

"Say what now?"

"Your pancreas doesn't produce this stuff called insulin, it gets rid of excess sugar in your blood, that's why you were throwing up, and why it smelled sweet, your body was trying to get rid of excess sugar. I was able to counteract it by injecting you with a stimpack, that seemed to give your pancreas the kick in the ass that it needed but..."

"But?"

"It's only a temporary fix, we don't have insulin here in the vault, since nobody else in here has diabetes... You'll have to take a stimpack injection... probably once a day, to keep your pancreas in check... The good thing is, you can eat whatever you want, unlike in the old days where people thought you couldn't eat cake and junk... or well, you could, but you had to take an injection of insulin whenever you ate..."

"You sure know a lot about this..."

"I had to read up on it, I wasn't about to let you die... I'm currently the most knowledgeable person about diabetes in the vault..."

"I see..."

"Good thing the dispensers keep making more stimpacks, huh?"

"Looks like you saved me again..."

"That's what friends do. You'd do the same for me, wouldn't you?"

"Of course... I just haven't gotten the chance..."

"Well... that's good enough." Timmy tried getting more comfortable in the chair again.

"Hey..." Vicky played with the fringe of her blanket. "Why don't you just sleep here?" she moved over and patted the space on the bed next to her.

"I'm fine here on the chair..." the chair responded by tipping over with Timmy in it.

"Clearly."

Timmy stood up and grumbled, then kicked the chair. "Alright, you've convinced me." he crawled into bed next to Vicky. "Goodnight Vicky..."

"Night Timmy..."

_The next morning..._

"Sir, I'm just as surprised as you are, she seems to be doing much better... Yes sir, with your son's help, we were able to run tests that haven't been done in over two hundred years... Yes, an old world disease... that's right, she'll need daily care, but she'll survive... Yes a stimpack a day should keep her healthy... No, I'm afraid there is no cure..."

Timmy listened to the head doctor talk to his father over the phone, he was in the waiting room now. He figured he'd give Vicky some privacy with her family, after all, just a few hours ago, they still thought she was going to die.

"Sir... you should be proud of your son, he saved her life... Well... yes, we will use stimpacks more frequently now... but the dispensers are outfitted to provide an endless supply... Yes, I am sure sir, this won't be a strain on our supplies... Very good sir." the doctor hung up the phone and walked over to sit next to Timmy. "I wanna say kid, what you did... you should be proud, you saved her when none of us knew what to do..." the doctor stood and patted Timmy on the shoulder.

"Thanks doctor... Mario?"

"I know... my parents thought it would be funny if I became a doctor like my father was, so..."

"When um... when can Vicky go home?"

"As soon as she feels ready to. You should know... since you're the expert on her disease, she's gonna depend on you a lot now."

"I'm her best friend, she should be able to rely on me."

"I'm just making sure you know." The doctor stroked his mustache. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a pasta dinner waiting for me."

Timmy watched the doctor leave, then turned to see Vicky with her family, the jumpsuit she wore looked baggy on her, it would probably be a while before it fit the way it normally did again. "Hey Timmy..."

"Feeling better?"

"A lot actually, I feel like I could actually keep food down..."

"I'm glad..."

Vicky's mother walked over to Timmy. "Can I talk to you for a minute Timmy?"

"Um... sure." Timmy followed Vicky's mother out into the hall. "Is everything okay?"

"Yes. Everything's fine... Vicky told me about what you did..."

"Well I mean, she asked me to sleep in the same-" Timmy was interrupted by Vicky's mother smothering him in a hug.

"You saved my baby girl, there's no way I can repay you for that, I'm eternally grateful. If we had lost her... I don't know what I would have done..."

"Um... it's no problem... I was just looking out for my friend..."

"Hah... if that's what entails looking after your friend, I can't imagine what you'd do for someone you loved..."

"I'm glad she's okay... I was really worried..." _"I'm also really glad she didn't tell anyone I slept in her bed with her..."_

"I know, we all were..."

"I um... should probably tell you more about the diabetes, and where it would be best to inject the stimpacks..."

"Oh! Yes, of course, please do."

_Four years later... _2276, May 5...

Though he had taught Vicky and her parents all about diabetes, and the proper places to give the stimpack injections, she usually came by his house everyday, she just seemed to be happier letting Timmy do it.

Over the years, he was able to encourage her to do it herself more often, rather then rely on her parents, who were afraid of needles, or him, who might not be around to give her the injections all the time.

"Hey."

"What's up?" Vicky looked up from the comic book she was reading.

"You still want to leave one day?"

"I promised, didn't I?"

"Just making sure. Better start packing..." Timmy lifted his blanket so Vicky could see under the bed. There was a dark green dufflebag.

"What's that?" Vicky popped a bubble she had been blowing with her bubble gum.

"Supplies. Meds, food, water, ammo, clothes, a blanket, repair supplies... This..." he unzipped a pocket a produced a ten millimeter pistol.

"Whoa! Where did you get that?!"

"Like I said, sometimes things go missing, nobody suspects it to be me." he handed her the gun.

Vicky looked it over and tested several parts, making sure they worked. "I have some stuff... but not a gun..."

"Keep that one." he handed her a box of 10mm rounds.

"Wha? Are you sure?"

"Yeah, throw it in your backpack for now, I can get another."

"Alright... if you're sure..." Vicky stowed the gun and bullets.

"Vicky."

"Yeah?"

"You need to be careful."

"I know to be careful with a gun..."

"Not that. I heard my father talking with some of the higher-ups in the vault. They think... they think you might be too much of a drain on the vault's resources..."

"What? But I thought the dispensers..."

"I know, they are more than adequate, but my father is too dumb to understand. I've been trying to convince him otherwise but... Look, just be careful, alright?"

"Yeah... I'll watch my back."

"Good." He watched Vicky return to her reading, she had returned to her normal weight about a month after leaving the hospital, she was still somewhat skinny, but everyone in the vault was. What he had begun to take notice of was the fact that she was filling out in... 'certain' places. Enough that it distracted the normally dormant reptile part of his brain. She had caught him staring a few times and at first only asked him if something was wrong, but after a few more times, she seemed to have caught on and would just smirk at him if she caught him.

"You know... you should take a picture, it'll last longer."

"Hm? What?"

"You were staring again."

"Oh! Sorry..."

"It's okay... not my fault I'm so pretty, you just can't keep your eyes off me."

"I can..."

"Also, these jumpsuits don't leave much to the imagination..."

"_Yeah their one saving grace..." _"Alright fine! So I like you!" Timmy was blushing red now.

"I knew it." Vicky nonchalantly flipped another page in her book.

"That's it?"

"What else is there? I like you too."

"Y-you do?"

"Yeah, we're friends, why wouldn't I like you?"

"_Friend-zoned..." _"Did... did you just friend-zone me?"

"Not necessarily. I'm just not ready to rush into anything. But us admitting we like each other? Well, I'd call that a start, wouldn't you?"

"I don't think I'll ever understand you..."

"Probably not."

_Two years later... _2278, June 1...

There was a knock at the door, Vicky's mother went to answer it. "Oh Timmy! What are you doing here so early?"

"So I'm gonna assume Vicky hasn't told you."

"Told me what?"

"We take the GOAT today."

"Oh dear... she was probably hoping I wouldn't find out, she's still asleep in her room..."

"I'll go wake her up, my dad has been chewing me out to make sure we both go, since she's my best friend..." he walked to Vicky's door and knocked. "Hey! Vicky! We gotta go!"

"Go away... I'm... sick! Yeah..."

"No you aren't."

"Yes I am! How would you know?"

"Because you don't sound sick. C'mon Vicky, you need to take the test, everyone does..."

"I'm not coming out!"

"Then I'm coming in!" Timmy punched a code into the door keypad and it opened.

"I really hate you sometimes, you know that?"

"Aw... I love you too, get up. We're late enough as it is."

"Can you get out please? I'm in my underwear..."

"You mean the light gray tank top and dark gray shorts that everyone wears? The ones I've already seen you in?"

"Ugh! Fine!" Vicky threw the blanket off herself and stepped into a jumpsuit, then put it on. "How does my hair look?"

"Like you just got out of bed."

Vicky smoothed her hair down and put it into a ponytail. "Better?"

"Much. C'mon, my dad is being a pain in my ass, I don't want to give him a reason to go after you."

"Fine fine. Lead the way Twerp." she continued to call him this, despite the fact that he was now about an inch taller than her. They passed Vicky's mother in the kitchen. "By mom, the Twerp's taking me out on a romantic date involving a goat, I should be back in a couple hours."

"Have fun you two, and remember, do your best!"

"We will! See you later Mrs... Vicky's mom!" he never did ask her what her last name was, and Vicky wouldn't tell him, she just preferred Vicky. Then again, he almost never used his last name either, preferring to go by Timmy. Lucky for both of them, they were the only Timmy and Vicky in the vault, so it was hard to get them confused with anyone else.

"So Twerp of mine..." Vicky jumped on his back and forced him to carry her piggy-back. "What exactly does GOAT stand for anyway?"

"Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test. They do it to find out what we're best at, so they can utilize our skills most efficiently in the vault. By the way, the answer to the last question is 'C'."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure. Speaking of the overseer..." Timmy dug around in his pocket and produced a small notepad. "Look at this."

Vicky took the notepad and looked at what was written. "Dinkleburg. Must be typed angrily... What is this?"

"The code for the vault door. The big one."

"This is?!"

"Yep."

"How did you get this?!"

"Shh! I told you, it's easy to get things when you're the overseer's kid. There's something else I want to show you later too..."

"Alright..."

They made their way to the classroom and Vicky climbed down off of Timmy. Another perk to being the overseer's kid, nobody dared make fun of you for carrying your best friend (who just happened to be a girl) around.

"We made it!"

"I see that Mr. Turner, now would you and your girlfriend please take your seats?"

"Sure." Timmy went for a desk near the back, followed by Vicky.

"Ah-ah. I would prefer if the two of you sat away from each other. I don't want you copying each others answers..."

Vicky groaned and made for a desk on the opposite side of the room.

"If everyone is at last here, we can finally get started."

_Several minutes later..._

Timmy stood first, followed by Vicky a second later. He handed his test to the teacher.

"Well, looks like in addition to being an overseer, you'll be the vault's resident jukebox technician."

"Huh?"

"You're good at repairing things."

"Oh. Why not just say that?"

"Because jukebox technician sounds better than engineer."

"No it doesn't! Engineer sounds badass!"

"Fine, you're the vault's newest engineer, happy?"

Timmy stick his tongue out and walked away.

"Ah! Victoria! Looks like you have a career as a jukebox- I mean _engineer_ as well! Also you'd make a good pedicurist... Hm... Odd."

"Can I get an abridged version?"

"Repair and energy weapons, good luck finding those in the vault though."

"Thanks Teach! Um... what do energy weapons have to do with feet?"

"Mm-hm. Have a nice day."

Timmy waited for Vicky outside of the classroom, fiddling with his Pip-boy. "Hey Vicky look! I made the screen on it blue!"

"Huh... Any other colors?"

"Let's see... white, green again... amber, and back to blue. I don't know if there are any other colors."

"How'd you do it?"

"Here, I'll show you..." he stood next to her and fiddled with the buttons and dials until the screen changed color. "What color did you want?"

"Umm... blue, I guess."

Timmy turned the dial until the screen turned blue. "There! Anytime you wanna change it, just press this... and this... then turn the dial until it's the color you want."

"What would I do without that big brain of yours?"

"Well... I mean, you're pretty smart too..." Timmy looked at her and realized their faces were only a few inches apart, he blushed and took a few steps back. "So... what do you wanna do now?"

"How about..." Vicky jumped onto Timmy's back again. "Since you woke me up from my beauty sleep, you take me back to my place?"

"Hmph. You're lucky I'd do anything for you..."

"I know."

"Oh! I just remembered!" Timmy made a hard left turn that caused Vicky to almost lose her balance.

"Hey! A warning would be nice!"

"Sorry!" Timmy was quickly making his way toward his living quarters.

"Where are we going?"

"To show you that thing I mentioned!"

"Fine. But I want to sleep after this..."

They arrived back at Timmy's place and Timmy rushed through the doorway, ducking to avoid Vicky hitting her head. "Hey mom!" Timmy didn't stop and rushed past his mother into his room, the door closed behind him.

"Hi... sweetie..." Timmy's mother had a clueless expression on her face.

Timmy let Vicky off on his bed and reached under it.

"Timmy, what's the rush?"

"Look at this baby!" Timmy held in his hands a silver and somewhat blocky gun.

"What is it?"

"An AER9 laser rifle!"

"Okay..."

"It's a gun that shoots lasers! I made it by cannibalizing the old ones from down here in the vault, my dad had a whole bunch, but they were all broken. But... all the rifles had different parts broken, there were just enough working parts to build a whole new one, I even tweaked the focusing array!"

"Let me see this..." Vicky took it and looked through the rectangular scope. "Hm... not bad." she pulled the trigger, and nothing happened. "It doesn't work though..."

Timmy held a small cylindrical object in his hand. "It needs battery power, specifically microfusion cells."

"Oh. Right, that makes sense. But it does work, right?"

"I hope so, I replaced all the broken parts, but there isn't really anywhere we can test it..."

"Oh well, it's pretty cool though."

"This dial here is for focusing the beam... at least, that's what I hope it does..." Timmy watched her as she looked the gun over, then handed it back to him.

"It's pretty cool, maybe one day we'll be able to test it out."

"It's um... actually for you..."

"What?"

"I made it for you. And since Teach said you would be skilled with energy weapons..."

"But... I couldn't... you worked hard on this, you should have it..."

"Yeah, but I want you to have it."

Alright... twist my arm... You hang onto it for now though."

"Right." Timmy stowed the rifle and cell under his bed.

"I'm gonna have to figure out a way to repay you for how nice you've been to me..." Vicky leaned over and placed a light kiss on Timmy's cheek.

"Um... that'll work."

"I figured as much." she smirked at Timmy.

_A few months later... _2278, October 19...

"So today's the day huh?"

Timmy stood before her with a dufflebag slung on his shoulder. "Yep... you got everything you need?"

Vicky wore a black backpack that looked almost full to bursting. "I hope so..."

"Having second thoughts?"

"Yeah... you?"

"Kind of..." he handed her the rifle he stowed away, it now had a black strap so she could sling it on her shoulder. "Here."

Vicky took it and looked it over. "Still don't know if it works?"

"Have a little faith." he handed her the microfusion cell. She placed it in the compartment, locked it in and heard a beeping sound.

"Sure sounds like it works."

They had agreed to meet in the vault's atrium, away from either of their homes. "You leave your parents a note?"

"Yeah... you?"

"Yup. They should be finding it right about..."

"_Alert, all residents are to stay in their domiciles until further notice, this is not a drill. Repeat, all residents are to stay in their domiciles until further notice, this is not a drill."_

"Now."

"Timmy! I see you on the vault cameras! Go back to your room now!" Timmy's father spoke over the intercom.

"Nah, sorry dad. I wanna see the world for myself! We'll be back, don't worry."

"Timmy! Go back to your room _now_! I wont ask again!"

"Timmy... maybe we should just..."

A door opened above them, Timmy's father stood on the balcony above them, pointing a 10mm pistol at Vicky. "This girl... I should have known that she would make you stray from the path... That's your mother's weakness..."

"Dad?! What are you doing?!"

"I'm saving the vault! I won't let either of you ruin what we have here!" he pointed the gun at Vicky's head. "I should've killed your bitch when I had the chance!"

Timmy heard the gun fire and watched as everything slowed down. He lunged at Vicky and watched as her gaze turned to him. He tackled her to the floor and felt a pain in his right shoulder, the bullet had lodged in his shoulder.

"Why are you protecting her?! I'm your father, damn you!"

Timmy's response was swift. He aimed his own gun and fired it, shooting the gun out of his father's hand, a second shot rang out and pierced his right wrist, a third pierced the left. He kept the gun pointing at his father's head. "You've shown your true colors today dad... I had second thoughts about leaving earlier... but I'm happy now... Now I know leaving is the right decision... Goodbye." Timmy stood and helped Vicky up, evidently still in shock from the past few minutes' events.

"Grr... There's nothing out there for you but death! You'll see soon enough!"

Timmy stuck a stimpack in his arm and felt the flesh regenerate and push the bullet out of his arm, causing it to plink on the floor. "If I could go back in time... the first person I'd go see was whoever invented stimpacks... and give them a high-five." Timmy stopped in front of the vault door control panel and rubbed his shoulder. "Huh... no scar." He typed in the door code and there was an alarm sound as the door opening mechanism came down and pulled the cog shaped door away with a loud screeching sound.

Timmy inhaled deeply. "Smell that? That's the outside world!"

"Smells like... dirt?"

"Well, there's a cave ahead of us, but beyond that is the outside world."

They heard heavy footsteps approaching. "Uh, Timmy? If we're going... I say we go, like now!"

"Right you are!"

Vicky ran out the opening, followed by Timmy after he typed the code back in to make the door close.

"Damnit! Open fire already!"

A hail of bullets came pouring out of the rapidly closing vault doorway, most of them missed, but a few grazed Timmy and Vicky. "Keep going!" Vicky was ahead of him and ran around a corner, he followed her and was pulled down against the wall. "What?"

"They can't shoot around corners! Also..." Vicky lowered her gaze to her calf, which Timmy followed, it was bleeding.

"I got you." he took out another stimpack and stuck it in her leg, eliciting a low hiss. "I know, that one I took a few minutes ago was my first... I never realized how much it stung..."

"Don't bother coming back! Neither of you are welcome, and the guards have orders to shoot on sight!" the intercom echoed through the cave they were in.

"Well... I didn't expect that..." Timmy slumped down next to Vicky.

"You okay?"

"My father just tried to kill both of us and banished us from the vault, so not really..."

Vicky fumbled for his hand and laced her fingers with his. "You did it again."

"Hm?"

"You saved me. Again. Your dad aimed the gun at me and I... I froze up, but you leaped in front without a second thought..."

"Heh... I wasn't really thinking..." he tightened his grip on her hand slightly.

"So what now?"

"First..." Timmy moved his left hand and turned on Vicky's Pip-boy light, bathing them in a pool of blue light. "Now that we can see..." Timmy looked around, then turned on his own Pip-boy light. "It looks like we're pretty deep underground..."

"Did you ever ask your parents where exactly we live... like in relation to the old world?"

"I know my great-great grandfather lived in a city called 'Dimmsdale', but he was on vacation with several friends when things got really bad, I think I once heard my parents say something about... 'D.C.'."

"So we're somewhere beneath this Dee Cee area?"

"Seems likely. But who knows?" Timmy stood up and helped Vicky to her feet. "Your leg okay?"

"Yeah, doesn't hurt anymore."

"Alright then, let's get moving. Who knows how far these caves go..."

* * *

><p>AN: I was gonna go into the GOAT questions, but that would have taken too long, for those who don't know them, go to the Fallout Wiki and type in the search bar, goat; Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test. Last thing I need is Bethesda suing my ass to a wall for thinking I stole their fictional universe's questions...


	3. Chapter 3

"Timmy? Are we lost?"

"We're probably a mile underground, in caves that could stretch out in every direction. And the Pip-boy's GPS doesn't work so good down here, must be some interference from these crystals." Timmy pointed to a large green, glow in the dark crystal formation.

"You didn't really answer my question."

"No we aren't lost, I refuse to admit we're lost..." They had been heading in the same direction for several hours now, it _was_ the only direction they could go. Back the way they came was the Vault, so all they could do is keep moving forward.

A few hundred feet from the vault, the cave opened up into a massive cavern with the occasional glowing crystal formation, they now walked on a large natural bridge. From what Timmy could tell, there was water below them, but it was difficult to tell how far, the light didn't reach that far, the only reason he knew there was water was because he had kicked a rock off the bridge and heard a splooshing sound a few seconds later.

"Now is probably a bad time to tell you that I'm afraid of heights..." Timmy spoke while looking back over his shoulder.

"Just stay near the center of the path, we'll be fine." Vicky moved close behind Timmy and put her hand on his shoulder.

"First thing we do when we get outta here?"

"How about... we ditch these stupid jumpsuits?"

"You don't wanna keep them for the memories?"

"I'm burning it as soon as I find something else to wear."

Timmy stopped walking.

"Timmy? What's up?"

"You don't hear that?"

Vicky listened closely, she heard a low skittering sound. "What is that?"

"If I had to guess..." a roach not unlike the one they had seen all those years ago came running out of the darkness and passed them. "Great, more roaches."

The skittering increased in volume as more and more ran by them. Vicky watched them with curiosity, she wasn't afraid of them, they may grow to the size of housecats now, but a stomp still dealt with them. "Why are they ignoring us?"

"I think they're running from something..."

"Like what?" Vicky shone her Pip-boy light back the way they had come from and saw that the floor was alive with radroaches charging toward them out of the darkness. "Shit!" Vicky grabbed Timmy's hand and started running in the same direction the roaches were running.

"V-Vicky?! Where... where are we going?!"

"Away from that!" she gestured over her shoulder with her thumb and Timmy looked to see the herd of roaches.

"Oh, that!" Timmy picked up his pace to better match Vicky's.

Vicky ran as hard and fast as she could, one roach could leave you with a nasty bite, a swarm though? They'd tear you to pieces! She noticed a large crystal formation up ahead. "We'll climb up that!"

"Got it!" Timmy and Vicky reached the crystal and scrambled up it, then stopped to catch their breath on a larger piece of the structure.

The two watched the swarm run by, it seemed to go on forever. "Turn off your Pip-boy!" Timmy did as Vicky said and they were plunged in near-darkness, the only light being that from the crystal they sat on. Amid the clicking and hissing from the roaches, Timmy heard his and Vicky's Geiger counters clicking, and a more distant sound coming from the direction the roaches were swarming from, it sounded like something was chasing the roaches.

"Vicky... I think these crystals are radioactive... Vicky?"

Vicky was silently watching the rear of the swarm, she heard the footsteps of... something, something that was running after the swarm. "Timmy? Do you hear-"

A stream of fire poured out of the darkness, frying a large portion of the roaches, the fire briefly illuminated several strange figures, they stood upright like people, but looked like some sort of animals she had read about once. _"What were they called? Geckos!" _They looked somewhat like the geckos from her book, but the biggest geckos in her book were around a foot long, maybe a little more. These stood upright and were almost six feet she guessed, and apparently breathed fire, that was definitely new.

Vicky turned to Timmy, who looked as shocked as she probably did. "You wanted dragons? There they are."

They ended up sitting on the crystal for over an hour, they could no longer see the geckos, but they could hear them eating the roaches, the cavern was filled with the sounds of crunching and chomping, with the occasional guttural croak.

"We're gonna be sterile from the radiation if they take much longer to leave..."

Timmy checked his Pip-boy's radiation counter, it hadn't yet gone up. "Nah, we're not getting any radiation, just the Pip-boy's proximity alert function, keeps you from wandering into an area with high radiation."

"Great, now I don't have to worry about having a freak baby... Which only leaves... How the hell do we get out of this?"

"I guess we wait... unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Your rifle!"

"Yeah?"

"The dial on the back. It affects the beams! Turn it all the way to the left."

Vicky looked at the back of the gun and found the dial, then turned it as Timmy said. "Okay..."

"Now, fire away."

Vicky pulled the trigger, causing nine red beams of light to be emitted from the barrel of the gun. The lights illuminated the cave and revealed around twelve geckos on the bridge, which jumped from where they were and leaped into the water below the bridge.

"Wow."

"Yeah, that was a lot of geckos..."

"No, I mean the gun! This thing is awesome! You made a laser shotgun!"

"Oh that, yeah, I didn't expect it to do that. Glad you like it though."

"Like it? I love it! I hope I get to test it out again soon!"

"Oh? You have a sadistic side?"

"Don't sound so surprised, you knew that already."

Actually, he didn't, he knew Vicky had an affinity for energy weapons, but he assumed she wished to know how they worked, not how enemies reacted to being disintegrated. "Well, we should probably head out, who knows how long that'll scare them off for..."

Timmy climbed down the crystal and waited for Vicky, she seemed a bit shaky as she climbed down. Timmy put his hands on her hips to keep her steady as she reached the ground. "You alright?"

"Just... that run really took it out of me..."

Timmy turned on his light to see that Vicky looked somewhat tired. "Hm... think it's your bloodsugar?"

"It might be..."

That was another wrinkle caused by the Diabetes, sometimes the stimpacks caused her pancreas to work too hard, and too much insulin caused her bloodsugar to go low. She would get tired or shaky and... irritable. "Here." he handed her a bottle.

"Nuka-Cola? How many of those did you get?" they both liked Nuka-Cola, despite the supposed radioactive isotope in it, and despite the fact that it contained so many fruit flavors, a fact that put off most people.

Timmy shook his dufflebag, causing an audible clinking sound, there were clearly quite a few. "Not enough."

Both burst out laughing at this. "Not with the rate we drink it!" Vicky exclaimed. "Here." she handed the bottle to Timmy.

"You sure? If you're low..."

"The soda's got over ninety carbs in a bottle! And I drank a little more than half, take it."

"Thanks." Timmy drank the rest of the Cola. "You know what these cooked roaches smell like?"

Vicky sniffed the air. "Old feet?"

"Yeah. Shall we go?"

"We shall."

Timmy and Vicky began to walk, when Vicky tripped on something. "Oof!"

"You sure you shouldn't have finished that?"

"It's not the bloodsugar, I tripped on something!" Vicky shone her light near her feet. "Looks like a rock... hold on..."

The rock was oddly rounded, and had a slightly scaly texture, there were dark, horizontal stripes running down its length.

Timmy walked over and picked up the not-rock. "It's warm... this ain't a rock."

"What is it?"

"If I had to guess... I'd say it's an egg... One of the geckos must've dropped it."

"Ooh!" Vicky snatched the egg away. "What should we do with it?"

"I dunno, it doesn't feel right to just leave it..."

"Should we... give it back?"

"I don't really think I can open lines of communication with geckos, my Charisma is only at four..."

"Five for me..."

"Just one thing to do then."

"Hm?"

"We take it with us."

"What if it hatches?"

"Then we hope it doesn't attack us as soon as it's born."

"Alright..." Vicky cradled the egg in her arms. "I guess this is the best I can do to keep it warm..."

The two continued on their way, crunching fried radroach corpses underfoot as they went.

"At least they don't have a disgusting nougaty center..."

"Yeah, that" CRUNCH "Would be" CRUNCH "Really gross..." CRUNCH

After several more minutes of walking, the cavern shrunk back down to a small enclosed cave again. "Hopefully we find the exit soon..."

"Yeah... unless we're lost." Vicky smirked.

"We aren't lost! This is just a big cave." Timmy looked back at Vicky. "Just you wait, we'll get out of here, and you'll owe me for all this doubting!"

THUD

"Ow..." Timmy had walked into a wall thanks to him not watching where he was going.

"Oh look! A dead end." Vicky deadpanned at Timmy.

Timmy checked his Pip-boy. "Hm... the map says the tunnel keeps going... So why...?" Timmy leaned against the wall and began to feel around for anything strange.

"What? You think you're gonna find a secret switch like in those old movies? That's only in the movies..."

"Shh!"

"Hey! Don't shush me!" Vicky spoke with mock annoyance.

"I didn't mean... just let me listen..." He could hear wind blowing from the wall. "Here, listen here." Timmy pointed to a crack in the wall.

Vicky listened and could hear a slight breeze seeping in. "I don't think we can fit through this crack."

"Smartass. We can fit if we make it wider..."

"With what?"

Timmy didn't answer, he had already taken off his dufflebag and was searching through it for something. "I might have just the thing."

"What _don't _you have in your magic bag of holding? You have a GECK in there too?"

"Er... maybe..."

"You actually stole a GECK?!"

"I... may have... possibly..."

"Jeez, you think of everything..."

"Not really, I don't know how it works, and I didn't expect that laser rifle to turn into a shotgun, I must have put too many crystal arrays in it..."

"Yeah, that experiment went horribly _right_!"

"Anyway... I don't think of everything, I just- Aha! Got it!" Timmy held in his hand a small somewhat pineapple shaped object.

"Your hands are shaking."

"I'm nervous holding a grenade okay?!"

Vicky sighed. "Switch."

"Wha?" Vicky took the grenade and handed Timmy the egg.

"Stand back and watch a pro at work!" Vicky jammed the grenade in the wall and yanked out the pin, then ran next to Timmy and crouched down. "Might wanna-"

KABOOM

Bits of rock and debris flew at them and bounced around.

"Get down." Vicky stood and dusted herself off, then did the same for Timmy and took the egg back.

Timmy just stood there, dumbstruck.

"You coming?"

"Um... yeah." He followed her into the newly opened tunnel. _"I love this girl..."_

To their right was a wooden door, light shone through its rotted remains. To their left was a Vault door, the numbers one-zero-one painted in yellow on it. Charred skeletons holding paper and wood signs lied on the ground in front of the door.

Timmy walked over and looked at the signs, 'We're dying assholes!' and 'Let us in!' was painted on the signs.

Vicky walked over next to him and looked. "Hm... no wonder they didn't get in, they were dying assholes..." Vicky giggled at the joke.

"What?"

"Look, they forgot to put a comma after 'we're dying' so it looks like they're saying that they are dying assholes, I wouldn't let a dying asshole in my house."

"Vicky... that isn't funny..."

"It's kinda funny." Vicky began fiddling with the console to open the door.

"Alright, it _is_ kinda funny... but I don't think they didn't get in because the residents thought they were dying assholes..."

"Who knew our vault was so close to another one, huh?" Vicky had ignored what he said apparently.

"Yeah... my dad never mentioned it, I've heard that the vaults could communicate with each other... but, well... you know how he was... or is."

Vicky began mashing the buttons and flipping the switches. "Why isn't this working?! Hey! Anybody home?"

No response.

"Hey! The dying assholes are gone! You can open the door now!"

"Vicky, maybe there's no one here? They could be dead for all we know..."

The intercom crackled to life. "Hello? Is that you?" it was a somewhat sheepish, female voice.

"It's me." Vicky shouted at the intercom.

"You're not... what do you want?"

"To see if anyone is home. Which there obviously is."

"My name is Amata, I'm the overseer of vault one oh one, what is your business here?"

"Just passing through, thought we'd say hi, I'm Vicky, and this handsome devil here next to me is Timmy."

"Hey."

"Are you raiders?"

"No... I'd say we're ex-vault dwellers... How about letting us in for a friendly chat?"

"I don't think so."

"C'mon..."

"No."

"Please...?"

"No."

"Alright... can you at least tell us what's happened recently? Anything interesting?"

"Let's see... our only doctor left the vault, his kid went after him, threw the vault into chaos, escaped, waited a few months, came back when I asked, threw the vault into chaos again, made my father step down as overseer, then I became overseer and told them they could never come back."

"And this person was your friend?"

"Yeah."

"What a shitty friend you are."

"Vicky!" Timmy exclaimed.

"What? She kicked out her friend and left them to wander the wastes! Just like your dad did to us! Hey Amata! You don't think that maybe your friend might have needed someone? Someone they could trust and rely on?"

"Who are you to judge me?! I had no choice! Everyone here... they didn't want my friend to come back! Said that they'd ruin the vault and doom us!"

Vicky stopped and thought for several seconds. "You always have a choice, you're your own person... and it sounds like you made the wrong one, and have some regrets..."

"..."

"We're leaving now, bye." Vicky began walking toward the wooden door, Timmy following close behind.

"Wait."

"Yeah?"

"If you are going out there... and you are from another vault... if you hear about someone called 'The Lone Wanderer'... that's my friend... if you are able to find them... and they aren't dead..."

"Yeah?"

"Tell them I'm sorry... and that I miss them."

"Sure."

There was no more sound coming from the intercom.

Timmy and Vicky stopped at the wooden door. "This is it Vicky... the outside world..."

"Yep."

Timmy extended his hand and let it rest on the door handle, then hesitated.

"You nervous?"

"Very."

Vicky put her hand on Timmy's. "C'mon, we've come too far to turn back now."

"We can't turn back anyway..."

"Exactly." Vicky shoved the door open and both were hit by a blinding light.


End file.
